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CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

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Collection  de 
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Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiquas 


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m. 


I 


[REPR] 


1^ 


MARSHALL  S.  BIDWELL 


A   MEMOIR 


Historical  and  Biographical. 


[REPRINTED  FROM  THE  NEW  YORK  GENEALOGICAL  ANt>  BIOGRAPHICAL 

RECORD  FOR  JANUARY,  1890,] 


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MARSHALL  S.  BIDWELL, 


A   MEMOIR 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL, 


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NEW  YORK 
1890 


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MARSHALL  S.  BIDWELL, 


/f   MEMOIR 


HISTORICAL    AND    BIOGRAPHICAL, 


BY 


EDWARD   F.  De   LANCEY. 


NEW  YORK 
1890 


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MARSHALL    S.     BI  DWELL, 

A    MEMOIR 

HISTORICAL  AND  BIOGRAPHICAL. 


By  Edward  F.  de  Lancky. 


One  of  the  most  venerable  and  honored  members  of  the  Bar  of 
New  York,  courtly  in  manners,  profound  in  learning,  pure  in  life,  was 
Marshall  Spring  Bidwell. 

Born  in  the  year  1799  ^^  Stockbridge,  in  that  beautiful  county  of 
Berkshire,  which  has  given  to  Massachusetts  so  many  of  her  greatest 
men,  he  became  a  subject  of  Geoi  ;^  the  Third,  and  took  successively 
the  oaths  of  allepiance  to  George  ihc  Fourth,  William  the  Fourth  and 
Victoria,  sovereigns  of  Great  Britain.  Driven  from  their  dominions 
in  the  prime  of  his  life,  by  the  iron  hand  of  arbitrary  power,  and 
subsequently  besought  in  vain  to  return  and  accept  high  judicial  station, 
he  lived  and  died  a  citizen  of  New  York  in  1872. 

A  memoir  of  Mr.  Bidwell  is  not  only  tiie  biography  of  an  indi- 
vidual, but  a  statement  or  the  early  history  of  a  new  country,— a  record 
of  the  sufferings  of  ■  neighboring  people  under  arbitrary  authority, 
and  of  their  struggles  to  secure  a  government  of  law  and  justice. 

Mr.  Bidwell  was  the  son  of  Barnabas  Bidwell,  a  prominent  lawyer 
of  Massachusetts  and  at  one  time  its  Attorney-General,  who  in  181 1 
removed  to  the  province  of  Ontario,  then  called  Upper  Canada.  He 
was  educated  there  under  his  father's  eye.  His  legal  studies  began 
in  March,  1816,  when  he  was  "  articled  as  a  clerk  "  under  the  English 
system,  to  Solomon  Johns,  an  attorney  of  Bath  in  Upper  Can-  '1,  and 
the  next  month  entered  as  a  student  at  law  by  the  Law  Sc  y  of 
that  Province.  In  April,  182 1,  he  was  called  to  the  degree  ..  Bar- 
rister at  Law  by  the  same  "Law  Society  of  Upper  Canada,"  an  in- 
stitution somewhat  analogous  to  an  English  "  Inn  of  Court,"  and 
having  somewhat  similar  powers  ;  and  three  years  afterwards,  in  1824, 
he  was  elected  to  the  Eighth  Provincial  Parliament  as  one  of  the  rep- 
resentatives of  the  County  of  Lennox  and  Addington. 

In  order  to  arrive  at  a  correct  understanding  of  Mr.  Bidwell's 
peculiar  and  difficult  position  during  his  public  life,  it  will  be  nec- 
essary to  glance  at  the  history  of  the  Province. 

At  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  the  British  Government, 
it  will  be  recollected,  made  a  scanty  provision  in  her  remaining  north- 
ern colonies  for  those  who  by  remaining  faithful   to  the  Crown  had 


Marshall  S.    Bidwcll. 


lost  their  all.  Some  went  to  Nova  Scotia,  some  to  New  Brunswick, 
and  others  to  Canada,  where  they  were  f^iven,  in  comjiensation  for 
their  losses,  grants  of  wild  land,  and  other  encouragement  in  the  way 
of  petty  public  offices.  These  Americans  were  subsequently  distin- 
guished by  the  name  of  "  U.  E.  Loyalists  " — that  is,  "  United  Empire 
Loyalists." 

yV  few  years  after,  —  in  1791, — an  act  was  passed  by  the  British 
Parliament  dividing  the  Canadas  into  two  provinces  and  conferring  on 
each  a  quasi-constitutional  government,  under  the  names  of  "  Lower" 
and   "  Upper  "  Canada. 

The  ministers  of  the  day  seem  to  have  run  in  the  old  groove, 
and  to  have  learned  nothing  from  American  history.  Blind  to  the 
palpable  fact,  which  a  seven  years'  war  and  an  inglorious  peace 
ought  to  have  impressed  on  their  minds,  that  the  Constitutions  of  the 
old  American  colonies  had  not  only  not  prevented,  but  to  some  extent 
actually  helped  to  j^roduce,  a  rebellion,  they  copied  the  Canadian 
constitution  almost  literally  from  that  of  the  colony  of  New  York, 
and  gave  Upper  Canada  a  (lovernor,  a  Council  ])ossessing  Executive 
and  Legislative  powers,  and  a  House  of  Assembly. 

The  British  Cabinet  through  the  Colonial  minister  appointed  the 
Ciovernor,  and  the  members  of  the  Council.  'l"he  Assembly  was  elected 
by  the  freeholders.  Thus  the  Canadian  legislature  consisted  osten- 
sibly of  three  branches,  but  in  fact  of  only  two  ;  for  the  members 
of  the  Executive  Council,  who  were  the  advisers  of  the  Governor, 
held  seats  also  in  the  Legislative  Council,  or  Upper  House,  where 
were  also  to  be  seen  the  Chief  Justice,  the  Superintendent  of  the 
Lidian  Department,  the  Receiver  Cleneral,  Inspector  (ieneral  of  Ac- 
counts, and  the  Surveyor  (ieneral,  who  in  one  chamber  made  the 
laws,  and  only  such  as  pleased  them  ;  for  if  the  acts  interfered  with 
their  interests,  they  as  the  Executive  Council  advised  the  (lovernor 
to  veto  them,  and  he  almost  invariably  complied  with  their  advice. 

In  this  connection  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  whole  of  the 
public  lands  in  Canada,  the  Clergy  Reserves  excepted,  were  at  the 
disposal  of  the  Executive  Council,  and  thus  formed  an  inexhaustible 
fund  to  bribe  and  buy  up  at  any  tinie  a  majority  of  the  House  of  As- 
sembly, which  body  numbered  at  first  twenty-five,  and  subsecpiently 
about  fifty,  members.  Add  to  this  that  the  entire  patronage  of  the 
province  was  in  fact  in  the  hands  and  at  the  dispo^:al  of  the  Council, 
who  appointed  every  officer  from  Chief  Justice  clown  to  tide  waiters 
— Judges,  C'rown  Lawyers,  Surrogates,  Sheriffs.  Magistrates,  Officers 
of  Militia,  Returning  Officers  of  Election,  Heads  and  Clerks  of  the 
several  departments, — all  were  named  by,  and  held  their  offices  during 
the  will  and  ])leasure  of,  the  Executive.  Eventually,  this  class,  or  the 
more  influential  among  them,  constituted  a  ruling  oligarchy,  who  to 
concentrate  their  power  and  preserve  their  lucrative  places  and  pat- 
ronage formed  alliances  by  intermarriage  within  their  own  exclusive 
circle,  and  became  known  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  Can- 
ada as  "TV/r  Family  Compact^  So  great  became  the  power  of  this 
cnnibinatior,  that  it  absolutely  ruled  the  Lieutenant-Covernor  for  the 
time  being,  controlled  every  departrient  of  the  government,  and 
obeyed  or  disobeyed  the  commands  of  the  Colonial  Office,  as  they  ac- 
corded with  the  views  or  conflicted  with  the  interests  of  the  "  Family." 


Marshall  S.    Bidwell. 


Those  who  opposed  misrule,  attempted  to  introduce  economy  and 
reform  in  the  government,  or  exposed  jobbery  or  misa|)propriation 
of  the  public  money,  were  marked  and  hunted  down.  Alien  and 
sedition  laws  were  enacted.  Though  freedom  of  speech  wa ;  the  parlia- 
mentary right  of  members  of  assembly,  it  was  imprudent  to  hint  at  cor- 
ruption, or  to  assert  the  truth  that  members  were  bribed  by  large  grants 
of  land.  He  who  was  so  bold  as  to  make  the  charge  or  to  demand  a 
committee  of  investigation  was  summarily  expelled.  In  1816,  a  sheriff 
dared  to  vote  "  the  opposition  ticket "  at  an  election  ;  he  was  at  once 
dismissed.  He  subsecpiently  established  a  newspaper;  exposed  abuses, 
was  prosecuted,  accpiitted,  became  popular,  and  was  elected  to  the 
assembly,  where  having  used  his  "  privilege "  rather  freely,  he  was 
thrust  into  prison,  his  paper  was  seized,  and  though  he  served  as  a 
volunteer  in  the  war  of  1812,  was  ultimately  driven  from  the  province. 

The  case  of  Robert  Gourlay  illustrates  more  clearly  the  tyranny 
of  those  days.  He  emigrated  from  Scotland  in  1817,  with  a  view  to 
settle  in  Canada  with  his  family  and  to  promote  emigration  to  that 
province.  He  addressed  the  landholders  for  information  ;  sent  circulars 
among  the  people  and  eventually  invited  a  convention  of  delegates  to 
promote  his  views.  The  Executive  needlessly  became  alarmed,  charged 
him  with  seditious  purposes,  and  ordered  his  arrest.  He  was  tried  and 
acquitted  ;  again  accused  of  treasonable  practices,  he  was  re-arrested, 
and  after  r.pending  some  time  in  jail  was  ordered  to  quit  the  province, 
and  on  refusing,  was  tried  for  disobeying  an  ex  post  facto  "  Act  for  pre- 
venting seditious  meetings  in  the  Province,"  and  forcibly  thrust  out  of 
the  country  ;  all  because  he  desired  to  obtain  and  publish  information 
which  would  encourage  emigration  to  the  province. 

Such  was  the  government  of  Upper  Canada,  when  the  Honorable 
Barnabas  Bidwell,  father  of  the  subject  of  this  memoir,  was  returned  as 
a  reformer  to  the  Assembly  from  the  county  of  I,ennox  and  Addington 
in  1821.  He  was  a  Presbyterian,  a  man  of  considerable  ability,  eloquent, 
and  a  firm  advocate  of  civil  and  religious  liberty. 

Mr.  Barnabas  Bidwell,  though  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  was  a 
British  subject,  having  been  born  before  1776.  He  remained  however 
in  the  United  States  until  181 1,  as  already  stated.  His  inde!)endence 
of  action  and  outspoken  condemnation  of  the  abuses  that  prevailed  in 
the  government  evoked  a  spirit  of  hostility  against  him  among  the 
oligarchy,  who  resolved  to  get  rid  of  him  at  all  hazards.  Consequently 
he  was  expelled  by  a  majority  of  one  vote — seventeen  yeas  to  sixteen 
nays,  on  the  ground  that  he  was  an  alien.  This  arbitrary  proceeding 
only  aroused  a  determined  spirit  of  opposition,  which  thereafter  never 
succumbed,  and  which  though  repeatedly  circumvented  and  defeated, 
yet  finally  buried  the  oligarchy  and  the  "  P'aniily  Compact  "  in  a  com- 
mon ruin : 

"  For  Freedom's  bailie  once  l)egiin, 
Befjuealhed  from  bleeding  sire  to  son, 
Though  ballled  oft,  is  ever  won." 

In  this  instance  "  Freedom's  battle  "  was  transferred  literally  from 
father  to  son,  for  the  sturdy  yeomanry  of  Lennox  and  Addington  re- 
senting the  affront  to  the  father,  brought  forward  the  son,  Marshall  S. 
Bidwell,  as  a  candidate  for  the  vacant  seat.  But  the  victory  was  not 
to  be  easily  achieved.     The  returning  officer  or  inspector  of  elections 


Marshall   S.    Bidwell. 


counted  in  the  opposing  candidate.  A  protest  was  entered,  and  after 
an  able  defence  of  his  rights  by  Mr.  Bidwell,  at  the  bar  of  the  House, 
the  return  was  set  aside,  and  a  new  election  ordered.  Thereupon  the 
returning  officer  refused  to  receive  any  votes  for  Mr.  Bidwell,  on  the 
ground  of  his  being  an  alien  as  the  son  of  his  father.  Another  protest 
followed  and  the  election  was  again  set  aside.  Finally  young  Mr. 
Bidwell  was  triumphantly  returned  to  Parliament  for  the  county  of 
Lennox  and  Addington  in  August,  1824,  and  took  his  seat  in  the 
Assembly  the  following  January  without  further  opposition. 

These  rejections  of  both  father  and  son  were  caused  by  mere 
partisan  feeling,  for  there  was  no  law  on  the  subject  ;  and  so  high  did 
this  feeling  run,  that  after  the  expulsion  of  Barnabas  Bidwell,  an  act 
was  passed  making  natives  01  the  United  States  ineligible  to  seats 
in  the  Upper  Canada  Legislature.  This  statute  however  proved  so 
injurious  to  Canadian  interests,  that  it  was  repealed  in  1824,  and  a  pre- 
vious residence  of  seven  years  was  substituted  as  a  qualification  for 
membership. 

In  1825,  for  the  first  time  since  the  Ciganization  of  the  province,  the 
opponents  of  the  high  Tory  oligarchy  !iad  a  majority  in  the  House  of 
Assembly.  Mr.  Bidwell  at  once  became  their  leader.  The  new  party 
called  "  The  Reformers  "  aimed  at  making  the  government  responsible 
to  the  House  of  Assembly,  precisely  as  it  is  to  the  House  of  Commons 
in  England,  and  not  to  the  Governor  and  Council — the  Executive 
Authority — as  the  oligarchy  had  done. 

Mr.  Bidwell  was,  perhaps,  the  strongest  man  in  his  party,  during 
his  entire  career  in  Canada.  Calm,  cautious,  courteous,  high  principled, 
well  informed,  and  ever  ready,  he  iiad  no  rival  in  debate  and  no  supe- 
rior as  a  presiding  officer.  He  was  chosen  speaker  in  1829,  again  in 
1835,  and  held  this  office  in  1836,  when  Sir  Francis  Bond  Head 
assumi'd  the  gov'ernment  of  Upper  Canada. 

During  this  period  he  had  a  large  and  lucrative  practice  at  the  Bar, 
won  by   :minent  ability,  close  application  and  high  moral  principle. 

He  I'^a  married  happily,  had  been  blessed  with  children,  was 
beloved  by  his  friends,  respected  by  all,  and  enjoyed  the  confidence  of 
the  public. 

Such  was  the  position  of  Mr.  Bidwell  when  Sir  P'rancis  Head  arrived 
at  Toronto  as  governor  in  1836.  The  new  governor,  though  appointed 
by  the  Whig  government  of  Lord  Melbourne,  proved  a  bitter  Tory.  He 
was  a  retired  half-pay  major  who  had  written  two  or  three  gossipy 
books  of  travel,  and  was  a  poor  law  commissioner  of  his  native  county 
of  Kent,  the  only  civil  office  he  had  ever  held  prior  to  his  appointment 
to  Upper  Canada.  Of  Canada,  its  history,  people,  politics,  and 
resources,  he  was,  to  use  his  own  language,  ^''grossly  ignorant."  * 

Among  the  first  who  called  upon  him  was  Mr.  Speaker  Bidwell,  the 
acknowledged  leader  of  the  reformers.  Sir  Francis  told  him  plainly 
that  he  was  an  inexperienced  man,  but  would  deal  honestly  towards  the 
country,  and  resolutely  correct  the  grievances  of  the  province,  and 
taking  up  the  report  of  those  grievances  by  William  Lyon  MacKenzie 


vn   "  Narrative,"  published  after  his  return  to  England.     This  work, 
of  Lord  Sydenham"  who  was  subsequently  "Governor-General  of 


*  See  his  own 

and  the   "Life  of  Lord  Sydenham'    , ^ _- 

Cani'da,"  and  the  official  correspondence  with  the   Home  authorities  contained  in 
eacii,  give  a  vivid  idea  of  the  state  of  Canada  referred  to  in  this  sketch. 


Marshall  S.    Bidwell. 


— a  volume  of  over  five  hundred  pages — invited  Mr.  Bidwell  to  con- 
verse freely  on  the  subject.  Mr.  Bidwell  did  so,  and  to  the  Governor's 
great  astonishment  told  him — to  use  his  own  words — "that  there  were 
grievances  not  detailed  in  that  report,  which  the  people  had  long  en- 
dured and  were  still  enduring  with  great  patience:  that  there  was  no 
desire  to  rebel,  but  that  a  morbiti  feeling  of  dissatisfaction  was  daily  in- 
creasing ;  that  increase  it  would,  and  that  in  fact,  if  it  had  not  been  dis- 
tinctly stated  that  the  governor  was  the  bearer  of  new  instructions, 
those  with  whom  he  wa^  associated  had  come  to  the  determination 
never  to  meet  in  provincial  parliament  again."  This  interview  was  the 
foundation  of  a  political  dislike  to  Mr.  Bidwell  which  in  the  end 
changed  his  whole  life  and  career.  Sir  Francis,  after  a  little  dallying 
with  the  reformers,  threw  himself  finally  into  the  arms  of  the  old  party. 
An  exciting  political  contest  followed,  in  which  the  latter  with  th'j  aid 
of  the  government  triumphed  at  the  next  general  election,  and  Mr. 
Bidwell,  among  others,  lost  his  seat  in  parliament  and  retired  from  active 
political  life. 

The  Home  Government  deteimined  on  a  conciliatory  policy,  and,  in 
1837,  Lord  Glenelg,  thr»  British  Colonial  minister,  requested  Sir  Francis 
Head  to  offer  to  Mr.  Bidwell  the  appointment  of  Justice  of  the  Court 
of  King's  Bench,  in  which  two  vacancies  had  occurred. 

This  the  Governor  not  only  declined  to  do,  but  actunlly  gave  the 
appvMntment  to  another  gentleman.  In  reporting  his  action  to  Lord 
Glenelg,  Sir  Francis,  after  admitting  that  Mr.  Bidwell's  legal  acquire- 
ments were  superior  to  one  of  the  new  appointees,  and  that  liis  moral 
character  was  above  reproach,  says  :  "  Anxious  as  I  am  to  give  talent  its 
due,  yet  I  cannot  but  feci  that  the  welfare  and  honor  of  this  province 
depend  on  his  Majesty  never  promoting  a  disloyal  man." 

Lord  Glenelg  rejilied  that  Mr.  Bidwell's  former  political  action 
should  not  prevent  his  professional  advancement,  and  closed  by  saying  : 
"  If,  therefore,  as  you  appear  to  anticipate,  another  vacancy  should  occur 
among  the  judges  of  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  it  is  the  wish  of  his 
Majesty's  government  that  the  situation  should  be  offered  to  Mr.  Bidwell, 
and  they  will  hear  with  much  pleasure  that  he  has  accepted  it." 

But  Sir  Francis  Head  took  the  responsibility  of  positively  refusing 
to  place  Mr.  Bidwell  on  the  Bench.  This  was  in  September,  1837.  Sir 
Francis  Head  believed  that  Mr.  Bidwell  was  a  republican  at  heart,  and 
leagued  with  Mr.  Papineau  and  his  friends  in  Lower  Canada  in  their 
political  action,  which  was  then  fast  verging  towards  armed  insurrection. 
This  was  an  entire  mistake,  the  objects  of  the  opposition  in  the  two 
provinces  were  entirely  dissimilar,  and  no  league  or  combination  existed 
between  them.  There  was  one  object  however  in  which  both  agreed, 
and  that  was,  the  desire  for  a  government  responsible  to  the  legislative, 
and  not  to  the  executive  power. 

Finding  that  the  Home  Government  meant  to  promote  Mr.  Bidwell, 
Sir  Francis  Head,  fearing  the  effect  upon  himself  in  the  province,  de- 
termined to  force  Mr.  Bidwell  to  leave  the  country. 

He  sent  for  him  and  told  him  that  his  party  was  beaten  at  all  points, 
which  was  then  the  fact;  that  the  armedoutbreaks  which  had  just  occurred 
in  both  provinces,  and  especially  MacKenzie's  attempt  on  Toronto,  had 
so  embittered  the  people  against  him,  as  he  was  believed  to  have  cov- 
ertly approved  them,  that  all  his  chances  of  further  political  or  profes- 


8 


Marshall  S.    Bidwell. 


m 


%. 


sional  success  were  ended  ;  that  the  provincial  government  was  opposed 
to  him  in  all  its  branches,  and  that  he  would  consult  his  own  happiness 
and  interest  by  departing  from  Upper  Canada. 

About  this  period  Mr.  Bidwell  received  a  gross  insult  and  suffered 
from  a  great  outrage.  His  wife  had  been  for  some  years  in  delicate 
health,  so  that  her  winters  had  been  spent  either  at  the  South  or  in  the 
West  Indies.  During  his  absence  from  home  professionally,  Sir  Fran- 
cis Head's  government  seized  his  letters  in  the  post-office,  and  at  his 
house  all  his  private  papers,  his  wife's  letters  among  them,  and  read 
their  contents  to  try  and  get  evidence  of  his  complicity  with  the  rebel- 
lion. 

This  outrage,  as  the  complicity  never  existed,  of  course  failed  in  its 
object.  Eut  its  effect  on  Mr.  Bidwell  was  so  great,  that  in  connection 
with  Sir  I'rancis  Head's  threats  before  referred  to,  he  ^//^  leave  Upper 
Canada  with  all  his  family,  and  came  to  the  city  of  New  York  at  the 
end  of  the  year  1837. 

The  next  year  Sir  Francis  Head  was  recalled  in  disgrace,  and  a  new 
governor  sent  out,  Sir  George  Arthur.  On  the  return  of  the  Reform 
party  to  power,  which  however  did  not  occur  for  some  time,  Mr.  Bid- 
v.-ell  was  not  only  requested  to  return  to  Canada,  but  was  again  tendered 
a  seat  in  the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench.  This  was  in  the  year  1842.  Mr. 
Bidwell,  however,  declined  to  go  back,  refused  the  Judgeship,  and 
remained  in  New  York. 

Sir  Francis  H'^ad  felt  that  he  had  acted  intemperately  in  Mr.  Bid- 
well's  case  and  it  is  to  his  credit  that  he  admitted  it  to  Mr.  Bidwell. 
When  Sir  Frimcis  camj  to  New  \'ork  on  his  return  to  England  in  1838, 
he  wrote  to  Mr.  Bidwell  requesting  him  to  come  and  see  him.  The  in- 
terview took  place  at  the  old  City  Hotel  in  Broadway,  just  above  Trinity 
Church  (on  the  site  of  which  the  Boreel  Building  now  stands),  where 
Sir  Francis  was  staying.  Sir  Francis  told  him  he  regretted  the  sever- 
ity of  his  action,  that  he  had  been  led  too  far  by  political  excitement 
and  trouble,  and  urged  his  return  to  Canada.  Mr.  Bidwell  heard  him 
(juietly  to  the  end,  and  then  calmly  but  strongly  giving  him  his  own  view 
most  fully  (if  his  whole  conduct  and  action  from  the  beginning,  ended 
'oy  stating  that  never  under  any  circumstances  would  he  return  to  a  land 
where  he  had  been  .so  badly  treated,  and  politely  bade  him  a  good  after- 
noon. 

On  arriving  at  New  York  Mr.  Bidvvcl!  met  with  most  kind  treatment 
from  the  late  (.chancellor  Walworth,  and  that  unrivalled  real  property 
lawyer,  the  late  eminent  Mr.  George  Wood.  Both  interested  them- 
selves strenuously  in  his  behalf.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  of  New 
York,  on  motion,  both  in  tlie  Supreme  Court  and  in  the  Court  of 
Chancery,  notwithstanding  his  being  a  British  subject,  the  courts 
taking  the  then  British  view,  that  no  man  can  expatriate  himself,  and 
as  Mr.  Bidwell  had  been  born  in  Massachusetts,  he  was  already  an 
American  citizen. 

By  Mr.  Wood  he  was  introduced  to  the  late  distinguished  Mr. 
George  Strong,  with  whom  in  SejjtL'mber,  1838,  he  formed  a  professional 
partnership  which  was  only  terminated  by  the  death  of  Mr.  Strong  in 
1855,  and  which  was  continued  with  that  gentleman's  son  and  nephew, 
the  surviving  members  of  the  firm,  till  his  own  decease. 

The  first  important  case  in  whiih  Mr.  Bidwell  v»ac  engaged  in  New 


Marshall   S.    Bidwell.  q 

York,  was  the  great  libel  case  of  James  Fenimore  Cooper  against  Wil- 
liam L.  Stone,  in  which  he  defended  Mr.  Stone,  then  the  editor  of  the 
Commercial  A  dvertiser. 

Mr.  Cooper  argued  his  own  cause  with  the  greatest  ability  and  elo- 
quence, as  he  was  by  nature  gifted  with  wonderful  powers  of  oratory, 
and  was  as  logical  as  he  was  brilliant  ;  and  had  made  himself  a  most 
thorough  master  of  the  law  of  libel. 

Stone's  libel  was  so  gross  that  Mr.  Bidwel!,  fearing  to  go  before  a 
jury,  raised  the  question  of  its  being  a  privileged  publication — the  only 
possible  defence — by  a  demurrer,  thus  bringing  the  question  directly 
before  the  court — the  first  time  such  a  course  had  ever  been  adopted  in 
the  annals  of  jurisprudence.  I  have  been  told  at  different  times  by 
two  of  the  most  eminent  jurists  that  this  state  has  known,*  both  of 
whom  heard  botli  arguments,  that  never  in  their  whole  experience 
had  any  case  been  so  eloquently,  thoroughly,  and  exhaustively  laid 
before  a  court  as  that  was  by  these  two  distinguished  men.  Mr. 
Bidwell  however  failed  to  succeed,  the  court  deciding  in  Mr.  Coop- 
er's favor  that  the  articles  were  not  privileged,  the  decision  closing  with 
these  remarkable  words  :  "  It  is  difficult  to  read  the  articles  as  set 
forth  in  the  counts  without  seeing  at  once  that  they  are  direct  and 
undisguised  attacks  upon  the  moral  character  of  the  plaintiff  by 
name.  "  \ 

This  case  drew  public  attention  to  Mr.  Bidwell  at  once,  and  from 
that  time  his  legal  career  was  one  continued  success.  He  was  en- 
gaged in  most  of  the  great  civil  cases  of  the  day  from  that  time 
onward. 

Mr.  Bidwell  was  deeply  read  in  every  department  of  law,  consti- 
tutional, commercial,  real  property,  and  tciuity.  Perhaps  he  had  be- 
stowed most  attention  upon  the  law  of  real  estate,  of  trusts,  and  upon 
the  construction  of  wills,  and  felt  himself  more  fully  at  home  in  their 
discussion. 

Mr.  Bidwell  took  a  warm  and  lively  interest  in  the  New  York 
Historical  ^iociety,  and  for  many  years  served  as  a  member  of  its 
Executive  Committee.  He  was  instrumental  in  procuring  valuable 
additions  to  its  collections,  especially  of  portraits  for  its  Gallery  of 
Art. 

There  were  two  points  in  ,his  character  of  especial  prominence  ; 
the  first  was  his  extraordinary  amiability  and  equanimity  of  temper. 
One  of  the  members  of  his  firm  testifies  without  hesitation,  that  during 
a  daily  intercourse  of  a  little  more  than  thirty-four  years  spent  amid 
the  care,  worry,  and  annoyance  of  active  practice,  he  never  heard 
from  him  one  syllable  of  petulance,  impatience  or  irritability. 

The  other,  was  the  keen  enjoyment  he  took  in  following  a  legal 
principle  up  to  its  remotest  sources.  He  has  often  said  "  that  lie  found 
far  more  entertainment  in  tracing  some  legal  point  through  the  reports 
of  the  seventeenth  century  and  still  earlier  than  in  reading  the  best 
novel  ever  written." 


*The  Hon.  Samuel  Stevens  of  Albany,  and  Judge  Samuel  A.  Foot  of  the  Court 
of  Appeals. 

f  Associated  as  junior  coiinsci  with  Didwell  in  iliis  case  was  the  late  Charles  P. 
Kirkland  of  New  York  City,  tlien  nf  Ulica,  who  also  personally  contirmed  to  me  the 
testimony  of  the  two  distinguished  jurists,  to  which  reference  has  been  made. 


.,:r 


lO 


Marshall  S.    Bidwell. 


Mr.  Bidwell  was  a  truly  conscientious  and  deeply  religious  man, 
and  in  his  views  a  rigid  and  unswerving  Presbyterian,  but  so  kind  and 
tolerant  to  all  men,  that  when  he  died  in  the  seventy-third  year  of  his 
age,  he  left  behind  him  warm  and  deeply  attached  friends  among 
Roman  Catholics  as  well  as  all  denominations  of  Protestants.  He  was 
gentle,  kind,  and  true,  the  very  incarnation  of  honesty  and  honor. 

"  Firm  to  his  purpose,  vigilant  and  bold, 
Detesting  traitors,  and  despising  gold, 
He  scorn'd  all  bribes  from  Britain's  hostile  throne, 
I"'or  all  his  country's  wrongs  were  thrice  his  own," 


lipl 


3US  man, 
kind  and 
ar  of  his 
s  among 
He  was 
nor. 


